The View From Here . . .

One of the more striking features of contemporary politics is the extent of the "marriage gap" and "fertility gap" between Republicans and Democrats. According to a USA Today article last week, 49 of the 50 Congressional districts with the highest marriage rate are held by Republicans, while Democrats control all 50 of the districts with the highest percentage of people who have never married.

On the fertility side, USA Today reports that Republican districts have more children than do Democratic districts, an average of 7,000 more children per district. "Many Democrats represent areas that have many single people and relatively few children. Democratic districts that have large numbers of children tend to be predominantly Hispanic or, to a lesser extent, African-American."

Some of the disparity can be explained in terms of income. Married people tend to be more economically secure and have higher family income than those not married. As a rule, higher income people are more Republican, although this correlation has been diminishing somewhat over recent years. Certainly the Republican message on taxes resonates with higher income voters.

But much of it is cultural. Married people with children are protective of their children and are less inclined to look favorably toward influences and cultural trends that they feel is inimical to family life. Accordingly, many (although certainly not all) parents with children tend to be quite conservative on issues like abortion, gay marriage, pornography and drug use. In broad brush, Republicans tend to be closer to their views on these issues than Democrats.

Conversely, of course, unmarried people (again, with plenty of exceptions) tend to be more culturally liberal or libertarian and Democrats generally take more liberal stands on social issues.

This affiliation between family value, social conservatism and ideology creates both opportunities and problems for both parties. On the negative side, red state Democrats frequently must defend their commitment to families against attacks, for example, that their party favors the erosion of social standards by favoring abortion on demand or gay marriage.

The problem may be even more acute for Republicans. Many in the Northeast and big city suburbs nationwide, some married and some not, consider themselves moderate or even somewhat liberal on social issues while generally agreeing with the GOP on many economic and national security issues. Retaining these voters, while still keeping the base voters happy, can be a large challenge.

And, as Republicans are finding out this week , their substantial political exposure over the emails and instant messages sent to underage pages by former Florida Congressman Mark Foley is also a product of the cultural conservatism of the party base.

Based on current accounts at this writing, Speaker Dennis Hastert and the Republican leadership were aware of an overly friendly but not explicitly salacious email to a page by the Congressman and, giving Mr. Foley the benefit of the doubt, merely admonished him and told him to stay away from personal contacts with pages. Of course, instant messages of an entirely more serious nature were discovered later.

While the initial leadership response might be regarded by some as reasonable under the circumstances, it has certainly roiled many traditional GOP supporters. Many parents cannot understand why no further investigation was made of a possible predator against teenagers away from home.

Perhaps at some point there will be a political party that is economically conservative and socially liberal, and/or vice versa. But for now, both parties have the challenge of reaching out to swing voters while retaining the allegiance of their core supporters and their strongly held values.